


Much Ado About a Dalek Invasion

by wanderingstoryteller



Series: No one ever said this life would be simple [26]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Arranged Marriage, F/F, Space Misogyny, Weddings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-14
Packaged: 2019-11-15 22:19:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,618
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18081977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wanderingstoryteller/pseuds/wanderingstoryteller
Summary: The Doctor and Yaz are just trying to have an ordinary Sunday when all of the the Pleiades come tumbling out of a TARDIS to tell her she's got to stop one of her daughters from marrying an utter bitch. The Doctor rushes to her daughter's side on the eve of her wedding only to to learn that the newly appointed Gallifreyan president has indeed agreed to enter into an arranged marriage with a truly unbearable Claxion princess in order to secure a military alliance.  Hilarity and a Daleks invasion ensue.





	1. I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow

**Author's Note:**

> Hey folks, I know I still owe you the last chapter of Wibbily Wobbly Timey Wimey, sex scene and all. It's in the works but until then I thought I would get this fic started. It should be light and fun with plenty of explosions

It was a beautiful, absolutely beautiful spring day on Kepler. Between the two of them, Yaz and the Doctor were able to boost Misca up into a cherry tree along the river bank. The pre-teen was small for her age but the tree was rather tall and it took a couple goes to get her high up enough to grab the lowest branch.

While she could levitate things, she couldn’t seem to control her powers very well yet. If she tried to bring the cherries down to herself it would likely all go terribly wrong so they were doing things the old fashioned way.

Once the slight girl was safely lodged on the branch, Yaz, the Doctor and Dina all held out an old bed sheet to catch the cherries she shook down. Even the effort of holding up the sheet was a bit much for the young alpha. Every so often she had to let got of the sheet to cough into a dark handkerchief. She tried to hide it but the Doctor still saw the blood on her lips. Her lungs were as scarred by blue fever as her face and would likely pain her for the rest of her life.

Dina looked up into the branches of the cherry tree with undisguised longing. The Doctor noticed and couldn’t tell if it was love for the omega girl in the branches or sorrow that she herself couldn’t manage the difficult scramble. The girl was twelve, it was likely both.

Truth be told, the Doctor had no idea when in the long span of Misca and Dina’s lives their childhood friendship became something more. She rather doubted it was something the two even knew themselves.

It had to be complicated at the very least. Misca’s parents had taken in Dina in after the blue fever epidemic had killed the girl’s parents and little brother. She had no one else save a grandmother with dementia on Tyco. The only other option would have been to send her to a state orphanage, and after so many children were left parentless by the epidemic, those places were overcrowded and rife with abuse.

Somewhat amusingly, even as young as the girls were, Misca’s parents had still kept up the “no closing the door when there is an alpha in the room policy” that they’d held their omega daughter to since Misca presented as on omega. Dina was currently sleeping in a converted storage room, it lacked a window but there were worse fates.

When the sheet grew heavy they dumped the berries carefully into the waiting buckets they had brought. Maggie had said that she could make jam if they brought her enough berries. The Doctor and Yaz had already dragged several big bags of sugar and a couple boxes of pectin from the TARDIS to make the process easier. The Doctor had become more than a bit concerned when Maggie had admitted to her that actual sugar, as well as a lot of other things, had become almost impossible to acquire on Kepler. The outbreak had disrupted food production and getting pretty much anything other than government issue enriched rice from Tyco was beyond the families means.

The Doctor and Yaz had brought a couple bags of groceries with the sugar. Avia had almost been too proud to accept it, Maggie hadn’t. A poet she might be, but she as a practical one with a wife still recovering from a nearly fatal illness and two growing preteen girls under her roof, one who was also still recovering as well.

She’d put away the food before Avia could find some noble reason to refuse it. With the universities closed, Maggie hadn’t been able to teach in months. No one was exactly buying books at the moment either and the only money that had come through the bookshop was a small stipend from the government for distributing pamphlets on post blue fever recovery and care.

Getting Misca down from the tree proved a bit easier than getting her into it. She was such a trusting child. She climbed down until she was hanging on the branch and then fell laughing into her gene mothers arms.

The Doctor was not as physically strong in her current regeneration as she had been in some past ones but she could still catch and spin about the slight girl.

“Oh you are so wonderful, absolutely wonderful my darling. You did such a good job.”  

Yaz noticed a different sort of sadness fill Dina’s face as she watched. It occurred to her that the girl had been orphaned a scant few months before. She was seeing everything she had lost condensed into one shining moment. She might be loved but she was no one’s daughter anymore. Her mother and father and brother lay in a mass grave somewhere outside the city. There was no one to scoop her up and spin her about like the child she still was even as she stood awkwardly stood on the edge of womanhood.

Yaz reached out and yanked the startled pre-teen into an awkward side hug. “You helped too kid. Don’t think your getting out of boiling down the damn berries though. You are drafted for the whole day.”

“I said I’d help didn’t I?” as indignant as she sounded, there was warmth in it and she didn’t pull away.

It was at that moment that a loud whomping wheezing sound filled the air. A red TARDIS thumped down in  middle of the path. A bunch of people all tried to dart out at once and tripped over each other.

Captain Jack Harkness was the first find his feet. He saluted the Doctor and was promptly nearly bowled over by both twins.

“Mom,” cried Minerva. She was just far enough into her twenties to have shed the last remnants of baby fat and the almost ephemeral beauty of early youth with it. Her face had taken the sharper, almost fox like shape that it would hold until her first regeneration.

“We need your help, it’s Vishnu again,” said her sister Diana. “You’ve got to help, she’s about to marry an utter prat.”

“An absolute git,” supplied supplied Shiva as she exited the TARDIS.

“Worse than a git, more like a prude,” said Shiva’s wife Lucy. She was heavily pregnant and had the tired short tempered look that women often get when they are being kicked in the bladder regularly. Apparently another biting vampire grandbaby was in the works.

“Oh for crying out loud, just call a bitch a bitch,” supplied Shiva’s other wife Lucy.

Jenny was the last out, followed by a battle scarred young woman, who absolutely had to be genetically engineered because how else could she have a figure that perfectly muscled?

The blond crossed her arms and said, “Vishnu really can’t marry this woman. It would be one thing if she’d at least chosen her but the whole thing is arranged and for political reasons. Vishnu deserves better.”

Jenny’s mate chose not to add anything.

The Doctor looked to Jack who had finally found his feet. “Is my daughter really marrying a woman who is as bad as all that?”

Jack looked very nervous. “Yes, but I don’t think your going to be able to talk Vishnu out of it.”

“Does she need a rescue?”

“She’s the president of Gallifrey now after she managed to banish Rassilon out with a flash plebiscite vote. She agreed to the marriage as part of a treaty she herself was negotiating with the Claxion. I’m not sure who we’d be rescuing her from.”

“Hershelf!” snapped Diana.

It occured to the Doctor that from what she’d seen of Vishnu she did seem the self sacrificing sort. She’d been willing to let Rassilon execute her to preserve Gallifrey’s government.

“As her sisters we just can’t let her do this,” added Minerva.

The Doctor tilted her head slightly to the side. “So why do you need me? She’s a grown woman. I can’t tell her what to do, especially since I haven’t even had her yet. Shouldn’t you go get my next regeneration?”

“No, she and Vishnu had a huge fight and now they’re not talking,” explained Shiva. “You haven’t had the fight yet so maybe you can talk some sense into her. She won’t listen to any of us.”

“And you think she’ll listen to me?”

“She might. You really are our last hope.”

The Doctor sighed. She’d been having such a lovely day up until this point. Sometimes she did wish she could just go a little time without a crisis popping up.

“Alright, give me the coordinates and date, I’ll meet you all there. I’ve got to see Misca and Dina home first.”

Once that was agreed, the Pleiades, their spouses, and Jack all piled back into the red phone box, the effect was not unlike that of a reverse clown car.

Through the entire encounter Misca and Dina had stood there slightly stunned.

“Were they…” ventured Dina.

“You’ve got other kids?” Misca was still staring at the bit of path where the red TARDIS has been.

“It’s a long story and one I’m not supposed to tell you until you’re older or it will mess up the time lines,” the Doctor explained.

“I feel like you use that excuse every time you don’t want to tell me something.”

“You would be surprised how often it is true.”

“So your not going to help up make jam then?”

“No, sorry darling.”

“It’s alright.” She still looked disappointed.

Guilt tugged at the Doctor’s hearts. When they headed back, she, Yaz and Misca carried back the heavy buckets of berries and Dina took the folded sheet. The young alpha had initially tried to lift one of the buckets, gotten it a few inches off the ground and dropped it with a hiss of frustration followed by a coughing fit.

“Don’t push yourself so hard,” the Doctor told her as she handed her the sheet to carry.

“I’m useless.”

“You’re healing.”

“I’m an alpha, I should at least be able to lift a bucket.”

“Fevers tend not to care about that sort of thing. Your lungs and body are damaged. You’ll get strong again, just give yourself time.”

She didn’t look happy but she accepted it. As it was the walk alone left her breathless and coughing again, her thin shoulders shaking.

Misca watched her with worried dark eyes. She’d have offered to carry the damn sheet if it wouldn’t have wounded friends pride even more deeply.

Once the two girls were returned to the bookshop Yaz and the Doctor set off in their TARDIS to go see what was going on with Vishnu.   

 

The ornamental palace gardens they stepped out into were undeniably impressive. They had landed on a tiny island at the heart of a koi pond accessible by a series of delicately wrought wooden bridges.

All around them flowers of every colour imaginable bloomed. Hummingbirds that looked like living jews darted about. Tiny raptors, a bit more like miniature red tailed hawks, hunted the smaller birds through the lush garden.

Turtles the size of hippos slowly floated at the surface of the pond their great backs heavy with moss. Small creatures that could only be described as jackalopes darted about the undergrowth, nibbling on the gardeners careful work.

“Wow, is all Claxio like this?” asked Yaz.

“Nah, this is just a botanical garden,” said the Doctor glancing about scanning. “Mostly it’s actually a desert planet. Nothing here is native to Claxion, even the Claxions. They’re a human variant that just colonized the planet. I think they may actually be descended from a lost Tycan colony.

Suddenly there was a loud sound of footsteps as guards in highly ornative, somewhat byzantine esc outfits blocked all three bridges onto the little island.

“Identify yourself travelers!” barked a young male guard.

“I’m the Doctor, this is my mate Yasmine. We’re here for the wedding of the Gallifreyan president.”

Now the guard looked confused, “Why did you land in the garden? We’ve set aside an entire field for the ships of arriving guests.”

“Er, was I supposed to land there?”

“The invitation was very clear on the matter.”

“Must have missed that bit.” The Doctor tried her best beaming smile.

The young man was rapidly growing suspicious. He crossed the bridge alone. “Were you even invited? Show me your invitation.”

The Doctor offered her sonic paper.

“All it says is ‘Vishnu’s mum’”

“Well I am. I’m one of the mothers of the bride so show me to her.”

“How can that be? One mothers of the Gallifreyan President stormed off a couple hours and the other one is still here.”

The Doctor nervously scratched at the back of her head. “Things are a bit complicated with my species, also the whole time space continuum. Believe me, I really am Vishnu’s mom and she’ll want to see me.”

They still had to wait, standing about awkwardly as the guard talked into a radio. Eventually he motioned the forward.

“She says that if you won’t go away to bring you to her because otherwise you’ll cause trouble,” the guard was still eyeing them oddly.

They were led through a series of absolutely stunning high arched hallways, up some richly carpeted stairs and at last into a room suffused with light. It rather reminded the Doctor of rooms she had seen inside of Brandenburgh Palace, all stucco, gilt and floor length windows.

Vishnu was sitting at a dressing table while several women worked her curls into an intricate braided crown. When she stood, Yaz’s breath was taken away by the sheer beauty of the ornate red dress she was wearing. The entire thing was an intricate set of silk layers, all emblazoned with golden gallifreyan symbols. It left her shoulders bare and a fair bit of decolletage displayed before plunging down into flowing skirts that trailed the floor.

The president of Gallifrey wasn’t happy to see the earlier version of her mother.  She waved out everyone from the room save one red haired woman who was sitting in a chair nearby.

“What are you doing here? I just got rid of your current self!”

“Your sisters were worried, they told me to come talk to you.”

“Did they?” Vishnu clenched her hands. “You would think that for once in their bloody lives they could just  support me, on my wedding day of all days, but no instead their trying to sabotage the whole thing.”

“They seemed to have some objections to the bride,” unbidden the Doctor took a cushion on the window seat and Yaz followed.

Vishnu let out an annoyed huff, “Of course they do. Hell I have objections to Princess Hekate, who wouldn’t. None of that matters though, I’m doing this for Gallifrey not myself. Why can none of my family but Mom get that through their thick heads.”

“For the record,” said the redhead sitting by the window. “While I do support this wedding as a wise tactical decision, I do still think you should poison the bitch once you’ve been married long enough to secure the alliance.”

The Doctor’s head snapped to the side. “Missy? Wait, how did you manage to be ginger? It’s not fair. Why do you get to be ginger before me?”

She offered a shark like smile to her ex-husband. This version of Missy was a bit younger than the last but still certainly no school girl. She had carried forward her love of victorian dress but leaned a bit more in the intrepid lady adventurer direction. Her current outfit was less restrictive than the last, although the skirt as still long and there were likely a great number of stays involved to make her breasts present themselves so well in her khaki top. There were goggles perched on top of her carefully braided and bunned hair.

“In the flesh dearest. How lovely to meet a version of you who’s still talking to me. Fancy sneaking off to a broom closet and making out? That’s a human wedding tradition isn’t it?”

The Doctor looked very tempted. Yaz was as well.

“Moms!” snapped Vishnu. “Please, try not to cause any kind of scene or disaster. For once nothing going on has anything to do with you.”

“We will try dear one,” the Doctor promised. “Now please, tell me what could possibly be so politically important that your marrying a woman you don’t like.”

Vishnu looked like she wanted to start pulling out her hair. “Because I need her mother's ships and soldiers. Queen Iphigenia will only agree to a military alliance if there is a marriage alliance to seal it. In case you haven’t been paying attention the Daleks are back. Their numbers have been rising. After the devastation of the Time War the Gallifreyan military lacks the men or ships to oppose them. There is a second Time War coming and if I can’t find Gallifrey some very powerful allies, it will fall.”

“I’m pretty sure she gets the grandiose speech making thing from you dear,”  commented Missy. “I’ll take credit for the strategic thinking though.”

The Doctor was more concerned about the Daleks, “what do you mean about Dalek numbers rising?”

“What the hell do you think they’ve been doing on Skaro? Playing whist? They have been making more Dalek’s, however the hell they do that.”

“Fair enough. Is this Claxion alliance really your only option though? Have you gone to the The Shadow Proclamation, I’m pretty sure they won’t ask you to marry anyone.”

“Yes, and they can only help so much. I don’t know when the Daleks will attack but I have to be ready. The Claxions are the only great military empire willing to work with the TIme Lords. This is my only option Mom.”

“But to marry without love? Surely there is another way. Let me help you find it.”

“No!” Vishnu curled her hands into fists and began to pace. “Just no. I have to do this and you’re just making it harder.”

“Your happiness matters.”

Vishnu turned sharply, her beautiful face fierce with anger. “No it doesn't! I am the president of Gallifrey. My planet matters, my people matter, my own personally happiness does not.”

“But…”

“No buts,” She pointed a finger. “I am fulfilling my duty. You wouldn’t understand though would you? Your whole life you’ve always run when things got hard. You’ve never done what was best for Gallifrey, wouldn’t even stick around when you were president.”

“Vishnu, dear one…”

What she would have said next was lost to the sound of a annoyed knocking on the door.

“Come in,” snapped Vishnu.

The woman who strode in was every inch a princess and a general, if her white dress uniform was any indication. She slightly reminded Yaz of a statue she had once seen in London of Queen Boudica, something about the way she held her head.  She was as tall as Vishnu and had nearly as striking a face, high cheekbones, sharp nose and all that.

Her dark hair was cut short, but not quite short enough to keep it from curling. Although she was likely still in her mid twenties, she already carried a few scars of battle, the most notable being a jagged burn mark on her neck. She moved with the controlled strength of a soldier who had spent most of her life training. It wasn’t hard to guess she had some impressive muscles beneath her neatly ironed uniform.

Yaz could not help but wonder for a moment, if everything else aside, Vishnu was simply going along with the wedding simply to sleep with the princess. Whatever objections everyone seemed to have to the woman, it couldn’t be her looks.

Then she opened her mouth and everything became clear. “What the hell is this I hear about you wanting to change the ceremony?”

Vishnu let out an aggravated sigh. She didn’t even bother trying to introduce the Doctor or Yaz to the woman. “I am not going to let you put a collar around my neck and lead me away by a leash. The entire idea is demeaning in its implications and also way to kinky for a public ceremony.”

Princess Hekate crossed her arms. “You are an omega, I’m an alpha, collaring is part of a proper wedding ceremony between such on Claxio.”

“I’m not Claxion and I’m not doing it. How exactly do you think it would look to my people if I, as the president of Gallifrey, let myself be collared like some sort of war prize?”

“Like an omega who has finally learned her proper place.”

Vishnu practically bared her fangs, “My place is where I choose it to be.”

“And mine is leading my mother’s troops into battle and defending her empire. Instead I have been called back from the front during a crucial campaign against the Glovians, just to breed some haughty foreign omega.”

“Haughty am I?”

“What else am I supposed to call an omega who has dared claim an alpha’s rightful place of power?”

“Madame President!”

“Well _Madame President,_ either you agree to the traditional Claxion ceremony or I won’t marry you.”

Vishnu crossed her own arms and glared. “Do you really want to explain to your mother that you’ve just chucked out a treaty that took nearly a year to reach, a treaty of mutual aid for both our planets, a treaty your planet gets quite a bit of much needed technology from, all because your pride couldn't bear getting married without being allowed to make a neolithic show of dominance during a wedding ceremony?”

That got her an equally impressive glare in return. “Fine, if you won’t do the collar, I won’t do the hand fasting with the silk cloth, it’s silly.”

“Fine.” snapped Vishnu. “What does that actually leave in the ceremony anyway?”

“A long blessing from the priestess and the exchange of rings. Don’t tell me you find those demeaning now as well.”

“Rings are fine, now get out of my room, it’s bad luck for us to see each other.”

“As you wish _Madame President.”_ She bowed and fled.

The moment the door slammed Missy said, “You know what, I revise my opinion. Do you think the treaty will still hold if you poison her before the wedding night? I’ve got a rather nice undetectable poison that mixes very well with wine I can offer you.”

Vishnu threw her hands up in the air, “Not a word, not another word from any of you.”


	2. No, I was not born under a rhyming  planet, nor cannot woo in festival terms.

When the Doctor and Yaz slipped from the room they were met by five Pleiades waiting sans spouses or children. 

“Could you convince her?”  asked Misca.

The Doctor shook her head. “Her mind is made up.” She was currently feeling a familiar prickling of guilt. If she had just paid a bit more attention to Gallifrey or to Skaro. Hell, why hadn’t her future self found Vishnu another way to protect Gallifrey instead of storming off and leaving her to her fate?

“Plan B then?” asked Diana.

“Yea looks like it,” said Misca, rolling up her sleeves. A resolute look passed between all sisters.

The blond Time Lady stepped in front of the door. “Please tell me that plan B in not to just physically pick up your sister and carry her to your TARDIS.”

“There are five of us and she’s not that heavy,” supplied Jenny. 

“You’ve met the fiance,” supplied Shiva, “Trust us, Vishnu’s not going to fight that hard to get back to her.”

The Doctor chewed on her lip, “listen, I don’t like any of this either but your sister is a grown Time Lady, and president of a planet. We have to let her make her own decisions.”

“But she’s making a terrible one,” Minerva insisted.

“That doesn’t change the fact that you have to let her make it.”

“Your futures self said that when Shiva dated the dragon chick, we all saw how that ended,” said Misca. 

Shiva did tilt her head slightly though. “Yea and maybe you should have listened to her. You lot trying to keep me away from Fafnir caused me to dig in my heels and end up dating her longer than I would have otherwise.” 

“You were just stubborn,” said Misca.

“So is Vishnu,” said Shiva. 

“Plan C then?” suggested Diana, looking very hopeful.

Misca signed. “No, I think we do have to listen to Mom, so no sabotaging the wedding.”

“But we bought all those wonderful glitter bombs,” Jenny sounded very disappointed.

“And the wind up robot scorpions,” Minerva was equally displeased. 

“We can save those for another time,” said Misca sharply.

“What are we going to do then?” Diana was more than peevish.

“Put on nice clothes, fetch our partners and  the kids and attend the wedding,” Shiva looked as if proposing they go for a stroll in a snowstorm. 

“I suppose the pre-ceremony reception is starting soon and there is an open bar,” said Diana.

Just as the Pleiades began to troop off, the door to the room opened again and Missy was bodily pushed out. 

“Mom,” Vishnu said to the Doctor, “Please do me a huge favor and make sure she doesn’t murder anyone before, during, or after the ceremony.” 

“It would make things so much more exciting,” said Missy

“I’ll keep an eye on her,” promised the Doctor.

“Good,” Vishnu slammed the door behind Missy. 

Missy sighed and twirled the walking stick that had replaced her beloved umbrella. “Honestly that girl has a very unhealthy sense of duty. She never was properly selfish even as a child.” She considered the closed door and then looked back at the Doctor and Yaz. 

“Nice to see you all youthful and alive again Yasmine dear, your tits are as phenomenal as I remember.” 

Yaz ignored the awkward reminder of her mortality in favor of the complement.“Are they now?”

“I suspect so, I could certainly conduct a more thorough investigation. I do have a room close by.”

Yaz nodded enthusiastically but the Doctor did not look entirely convinced yet. “Now isn’t really the time.” 

Missy slunk closer. “If I’m busy seducing you my lovely then I can’t really be causing a scene or a disaster elsewhere.”

“She’s got a point,” said Yaz, slipping an arm around her mate’s waist.

Things went in a predictable and soon enough horizontal direction after that, resulting in them missing most of the pre-ceremony reception in the main courtyard of the palace. Missy was however able to indeed confirm that Yaz’s tits were still phenomenal and Yaz reached a similar conclusion about the ginger Time Lady’s assets. After their activities concluded they grabbed a quick shower and headed out.

They arrived just as people were starting to drifting towards the palace chapel. It was a beautiful glass and stone building consisting of a great deal of delicate arches. The inside was full of ornately carved columns and had a large altar at the front that would have suitably awed even some of earth's historically more ostentatious popes. 

Hard wooden benches lined both sides of the aisle and had little white seating cards. One declared the first two rows of pews on the right side to be “Family of Vishnu of Gallifrey.” Because their party consisted of both of Vishnu’s moms, Yaz, five Pleiades, four parters of Pleiades, three children, and Jack, they actually needed both pews. 

The sight of Jenny’s partner, Eve, sitting next to their adopted daughter, Sept, was a bit startling. They were both clones of the same super soldier line and carried a younger and older version of the same face. While the grown woman was marked by battle, she seemed far more at ease than the warry eyed child. The Doctor had to wonder at the wisdom of bringing a child with PTSD as bad as Sept’s to such a large event. Maybe she was improving.

The Doctor sat with Missy on one side and Yaz on the other near the middle of the first pew. When she saw her granddaughter, Margarite, she happily held out her arms and the child clambered over a series of laps to get to her. 

“Grandma!”

“Hello my wonderful darling. You’re getting so big.” 

“I’m four.” declared the child. “And I just lost another tooth.” She opened her mouth very wide to demonstrate this. She was missing about two and a third was halfway in the process of growing back in.

“Did you leave it out for the Tooth Fairy?” Yaz asked, reaching over to tickled her little girl’s stomach.

“No,” she shook her head very solemnly. “Momma Misca says fairies are dangerous.”

“She’s not wrong, they love to steal children, especially little Time Lords,” commented Missy looking up from her own grandchild, Camilla. The sharp toothed and violet eyed girl had at some point graduated from the swaddled infant stage of her life to become a highly mobile toddler. She seemed a bit uncertain of this older and unfamiliar version of her grandmother and wiggled until given an old fashioned compass to play with. 

Missy ruffled her hair affectionately, “Who’s a good little helion, you are, you are.” 

When the Doctor smiled at her, Missy smirked. “She’s my favorite of our grandchildren and by far the smartest and most ruthless. She actually adventures with me for a bit when she gets older. Together we steal the lost treasure of the Medusa Cascade and the Holy Grail, although we did have to give th one back.” She cast as glance towards Lucy’s heavily rounded stomach where the Vascan was sitting on Shiva’s other side. “I’m not as fond of the next one, she’s cute when she’s little but she becomes painfully ethical as an adult, no fun at all.” 

Lucy, like most Vascan’s had very good hearing. She made a face at her mother in law and leaned over Shiva to say. “Keep criticising my unborn daughter and I won’t let you keep holding the toddler.”

Yaz had never seen Lucy or Mina show any fear of Missy, although most people with any sense were at least wary of her. 

Interestingly, Missy did not respond with a threat. “Heaven forbid. I’ll keep my criticism to individuals who’ve already been born then. By the way that dress really isn’t your color, you're far too pale to wear maroon. As pregnant as you are it makes you look like a red pear.” 

“Excise me?” Lucy looked like she was about to say some choice things about her mother in law's sense of fashion when something that sounded like a bell choir started up and the chapel went quiet. 

“We’re really letting this happen?” Yaz whispered in the Doctor’s ear.

“Afraid so. I don’t like it either but I’ve said my piece and now we have to respect Vishnu’s choices.” The Doctor cast a quick look to Missy. “Do we have to do anything for the ceremony by the way?”

“No, on Claxio the alpha parent is supposed to give the omega offspring away but Vishnu thought that made her seem to much like property. Probably for the best, you and I are both alphas now so I’m not sure which of us would even do the handing off.”

A priestess in blue robes came to stand at the altar. A moment later Princess Hekate stepped in through a side door. She stood with her hands folded almost awkward and out of place in the chapel of her ancestors.

The music got louder and Vishnu entered the chapel and proceeded down the aisle. She was as stunning in the fractured light of the stained glass windows as she had been in the dressing room. The dress clung to her like a second skin, the skirts flowing about her legs like water. She walked with her head high and her back straight, as proud as Mary Queen of Scots going to her execution. 

Hekate watched her with something that for just an instant looked a bit like awe. Just as quickly her face was blank and unreadable again.

The music faded as Visnu reached the altar. She held her futures wife’s gaze impassively as she took her hands and the ceremony began. 

At least the ceremony was supposed to begin. In the first beat of silence before the priestess could speak, a child’s wailing voice rose to fill the room. 

“They’re coming, they’re coming I can sense them. Mom, Moma, we have to run. We have to run and hide!” Sept scrambled to her feet and bolted a few steps from the pews before realizing that her mothers hadn’t moved. She turned back, grabbing Jenny’s hand and trying to drag her to her feet. She might have been a genetically engineered super soldier but she was still too small to move an adult who didn’t want to go.

The look of genuine confusion on the blond Time Lady’s face made it clear that the child’s outburst wasn’t planned. She knelt down on the floor and tried to sweep her struggling daughter into her arms. 

“Sept, baby, no one’s coming. You’re safe. I promise you you’re safe.”

“No were not! I hear the buzzing sound Dalek’s make. They’re coming! Please we all have to go!” She was impressively loud for such a small child. 

Eve was on her feet in an instant, her dark eyes wide, looking every inch a soldier. “She’s right. I hear it too. Evacuate! Everyone out now!”

That was all Misca needed. “Pleiades, emergency plan Delta Apple Cormorant. Shiva, Dina, Lucy, Mina, Jack, get the babies to safety. Jenny and Eve help get people out. Everyone else with me.”

In that exact moment all of the beautifully wrought stain glass shattered inwards. 

“Exterminate! Exterminate!”

Roughly ten gleaming metal creatures shaped like rubbish bins with attached plungers burst into the chapel. 

Missy didn’t miss a beat. She leapt to her feet, grandbaby in arms, waiting only long enough to make sure Shiva and her wives were with her before heading for the door. She loved Vishnu deep, but she trusted her grown daughter to protect herself, she had no such faith in the toddler she was holding. Shiva and Mina each lent their heavily pregnant mate an arm to get Lucy onto her feet. 

Before the Doctor could react, Dina was snatching a startled Margaret out of her arms. “Go help, you’re good in a fight. I’m not.” 

Jack had already thrown a struggling Sept over his shoulder. The child had wanted to flee but quickly rethought her plan when she realized that her adopted mothers weren’t coming with her. 

The entire group was halfway out the door before most of the wedding guests even began to realize that they should be afraid. They followed very quickly however, with a great deal of panic and screaming. 

Fortunately for the guests and not so fortunately for brides the Daleks targeted the altar. They got the priestess zapping her into ash as Hekate and Vishnu both dived to the sides. 

Vishnu rose, drawing her sonic from where she had secreted it in her cleavage. Hekate had an easier time drawing her side arm from her hip. A blast from the the Time Lady’s sonic exploded one of their attackers and the brilliant green explosion from her fiance’s side arm failed to do the same.

“Aim for the eye you idiot!”

“I’m trying!” 

They moved to stand back to back, using their respective weapons to fire back at the dalek’s. Their foes own attempts to shoot them were deflected by Vishnu's personal forcefield, located in a heavy ruby and gold bracelet she was wearing. When she actually knew where to fire, Hekate proved a good shot.

Across the room, The Doctor drew her own sonic and rushed to save her daughter. She didn’t get very far before the floating Dalek’s began to swarm her. Misca came to her aid, sending the metal monsters crashing into the walls with a wave of her arms. The moment they tried to hover back into the air, both twins blasted them with their own sonic weapons, which seemed to rather resemble hammers. 

The palace guards swared to protect their queen, an aging alpha woman with the look of a general. She didn’t want to go but she was old enough to prove not that hard to drag out. Her eldest beta son, the crown prince of Claxio, fled more than willingly, small son clutched in his arms and his wife clinging to his hand. 

In all that chaos one little princess was forgotten. Yaz saw the frightened pre-teen girl in a beautiful pink dress, trip and fall. The guard that knelt to help her to her feet was zapped to death by a blast from a dalek. 

The girl screamed and scrambled back against the wooden pew as the dalek advanced. Without a thought, Yaz rushed to her aid. She grabbed the girl by the arm and yanked her into the aisle and then behind the meager protection of the wooden pew. 

“Come on.”

The girl tried to stand and fell with a wail of pain. She’d twisted something when she fell. Yaz knelt just long enough to get an arm under the girl’s shoulder and move them both. She’d never more feverently wished that she worked out more. Behind herself she heard the dalek. 

“Exterminate. Exterminate all members of the Claxion royal family.”

Yaz pulled them both down behind the pew as the wood exploded. 

“Doctor!”

The Doctor turned and tried to get to them but she and three of her daughters were already surrounded by a whirling cloud of daleks and more were piling in through the shattered windows.

Vishnu heard and she came, kicking off her heels and tearing her skirt when it got in her way. Her sonic brought down the dalek that was slowly rolling towards Yaz and the frightened girl. She reached them just in time to raise up her shield bracelet to protect them all form the next two dalex that wizzed down towards them.

“Leave my little sister and fiance alone you bastards.”

Both daleks whirred to look at the Claxion princess. She shot one of them but didn’t have time to get the other. Fortunately for her, Vishnu did. The Time Lord president had never had any compunction against shooting her enemies in the back, if daleks could even rightly be said to have those.

“Run, get Gigi out of here!” ordered Hekate.

“No get your ass over here so I can shield you, you bloody stupid alpha!”

When a dalek exploded the ground just to her left, Hekate choose to accept her fiance's advice and ran to her, sliding into the protection of her personal force field just in time to escape with no more than a scorched coat. 

They all began edging towards the door. The number of daleks was growing. By that point all of the wedding guests were gone. “Misca” screamed Vishnu. “Use it. Use the BingBing bomb.”

“Are you sure?” yelled back Misca. Her hands and eyes were glowing as she did her level best to use her telekinesis to simply bash as many dalek’s apart as she could. “We haven’t tested it. It could fry all tech for miles.”

“If we don’t, the dalek’s will fry all life for miles.”

That was all the Tycan needed. “Diana. Do it!”

Far too gleefully, the half human Time Lady drew something out of her coat that really did look like a cartoon bomb that Wile E. Coyote might have purchased to catch a certain road runner. She lit the end of the fuse with a zippo, threw it into the air, and then dove back into the dome of shimmering protection that Misca had just created to shield her sisters and mother. 

Yaz covered the little prince's eyes and closed her own. Vishnu did as much for her fiance, despite the alpha’s protests. 

Perhaps they should have covered their ears because the ensuing sound was as deafening as the explosion was bright. All of the dalek’s hit the ground with a dramatic thunk, unfortunately so did large chunks of the chapel roof.

“Move! Move! It’s coming down!” screamed Misca. Her eyes were glowing again and she seemed to likely be the only thing holding the whole place up. Diana and Minerva each took an arm, dragging their sister along through their retreat. The Doctor ran ahead clearing the way.

A huge column came down Yaz and Hekate barely managed to scrambled out of the way and avoid being crushed. 

“Gigi, Vishnu!” screamed Hekate.

Yaz had to bodily grab the warrior and yank her back as more huge chunks of rock came down from the roof.

“We’re fine. We’re fine,” yelled Vishnu over the din. “My shield held, we’ve just got to find another way out” 

Yaz could see the glow of her shield over the pile of rubble separating them.

“Stay there, I’ll get to you,” called back Hekate.

“No. There is no time. Go.”

“I won’t leave you.”

“Go you stubborn fool. I can save your sister and myself but I can’t protect you too.”

“No.” Hekate had paused though, she wasn’t a stupid woman. Vishnu had a shield and she didn’t. She had to realize she couldn’t actually help her that much.

“Goddess damn it. Get my stepmother to safety. My mother will kill herself trying to save her if you don’t. Do this for me. Please. As my fiance, you owe me this.”

“You have my word.”

“Then fucking go!”

Hekate grabbed Yaz’s arm and together they stumbled through the haze of dust and rising smoke.

They didn’t move fast enough and a bit of falling rock caught Yaz’s shoulder. She fell with a scram of pain and just as quickly the alpha princess dragged her to her feet, kept her moving. They pushed  towards the distant illumination of sunlight and soon enough they were stumbling into it. 

Hands grabbed at them, dragging them into clear air and light. Yaz collapsed onto her hands on the grass of the courtyard coughing up something black. 

“Yaz, Yaz, my Yaz.” 

The Doctor tried to hug her and then she made a terribly frightened sound her she drew her hand away red with blood. Yaz felt faint but the Doctor caught her as she fell fully into her arms.

“I’m fine. Vishnu though…”

Suddenly a cry went up. “Their safe, their safe, the princess and the Gallifreyan president came out a side door, their safe.”

Hekate rushed towards the sound to find Vishnu and the little princess slumped and coughing a safe distance from the burning chapel. She clutched at the child first, which was a mistake, as the movement jostled the girl’s injured ankle further and she nearly howled with pain. 

“Your safe, Gigi, you’re safe.”

“Owe. Put me down Hek.” 

She did very gently. Then she rose and looked with complete and utter awe at the Gallifreyan president standing there in her torn and singed wedding dress.

“Vishnu...you are incredible.”

“I know,” she smiled as she said it.

The general moved as if to embrace her and then hesitated. “You saved my baby sister.”

“Gladly.”

“And you were glorious in battle.” 

“I am never less so.”

“Goddess, I have undervalued you.” 

“I noticed.” her smile was getting broader. “You’re not bad in a fight either you pompous alpha.”

Hekate clasped Vishnu’s hands and she let her take them. “Marry me. Here and now. I’m sure someone can find another priestess.”

If possible, Vishnu’s smile got a bit sharper and for a moment she rather resembled Missy. “Now that would be a fool's move. It seems to me that I now have the advantage.”

“What?” The alpha blinked at her in confusion. 

“The dalek’s attacked your planet first. Now you need Time Lord aid. Your mother made the mistake of refusing to conclude the treaty until we were wed, but now suddenly your planet needs the treaty more than mine and it is still unsigned.”

“What are you saying?” 

“I’ll sign to treaty today but I will not wed today.”

“Your breaking our engagement?”

“Extending it. Raise your forces, lead your army into battle with me against the dalek’s. If we are victorious and you can convince me you’re not a complete asshole, then I’ll consider marrying you.”

Princess Hekate brighted, “you want me to win you? Prove myself as an alpha in battle?”

“Damn your good at missing the point. I don’t need some girl who’s trying to prove herself. I need a woman who will fight beside me.”

“I can do that.”

“Then start showing me.”

 

The rest of the day was a carefully controlled chaos of events. The Doctor spent most of it with Yaz in the palace infirmary as a medical doctor cleaned and bound up Yaz’s arm. She had a minor fracture. It wasn’t as bad as it had first appeared but it was still very painful. Claxio had advanced medical technology but all of its machines within a mile radius had been wiped out by the BingBing bomb. On the upside it had brought down the Dalek ship which had come too close to the ground and been hit. Unfortunately, it came down on the field where all the guests ships, other than the TARDISes, were parked. None of the other guests were going home for a while. 

Vishnu’s shield and everyone’s sonic had been spared because Diana had specifically designed the BingBing bomb to not affected Time Lord technology, especially the kinds that the Pleiades and the Doctor favored.

The sound of screaming led the Pleiades to realize that some of the daleks were alive and in agony in their burned shells. Missy wanted to just sit back and enjoy the sound. The queen of Claxion and princess Hekate wanted to apply fire until the sound stopped. The Doctor refused, if nothing else she always did believe in mercy and never being needlessly cruel. 

In the end she freed the surviving squid like creatures from their burned metal shells. Severe burns did not improved monster cephalopods’ appearances. Vishnu gave them all a very dramatic speech to take back to Davros, and they dumped them into a stasis pods and sent them in a small unmanned ship on a one way trip back to Skaro. 

The Doctor had the distinctive impression that had she not been present, Vishnu might have been fine with sending back only a single dalek with her message and burning the rest. There was something in the way she looked at the hideous creatures, a certain disdainful set of her jaw, that was a prefect echo of Missy before she destroyed things. 

With the Dalek’s dealt with there was nothing left to be done except sign the treaty. Queen Iphigenia was mildly displeased that President Vishnu wanted to extend her engagement with her daughter instead of just wedding quickly. She also knew when she had no leverage.

Good naturedly she said simply. “I understand dear girl. We stand on the eve of war and you’ve your own troops to lead into battle. Best not to risk facing all of that pregnant. Wed and begin your family when our worlds are safe again.”

Vishnu colored. “That’s not…”

The queen just smirked and offered her the pen. 

The treaty was signed and the day wound to a close. The Doctor wanted to stay but of all people, Missy, told her to go. She found the doctor sitting outside the Pleiades TARDIS, which was parked in a courtyard. Yaz had dozed off on the grass beside her. Her broken arm had utterly exhausted her. 

Missy sat down on the Doctor’s other side, “You and your sexy little mate should be on your way dearie.” There was a tenderness in her tone that the Doctor hadn’t heard since their first lives. Maybe she just missed her.

“The dalek’s just tried to murder my daughter.”

“A daughter you haven’t given birth to yet. I’ve called your older self and she’s on her way back to help once she deals with some flying penguin issue.”

“I just don’t want to leave when I might be needed.”

“You’re not needed here any longer, my Doctor is.”

“Do you want me gone that badly,” asked the Doctor with a forced smile.

“Not particularly, I certainly enjoyed getting requanted.” she was very good at being suggestive with her eyebrows in her new regeneration. The Doctor was reminded of an earlier one that had had very impressive dark eyebrows “But this still isn’t your timeline and you need to get back to yours. You’ve plenty of your own battles ahead of you and you can’t fight them if your fighting the one that is about to happen here.”

“Wait, have you seriously gotten wise in your old age?”

“I certainly hope not.” 

“Your sounding sage.”

“No, I just know what’s coming up next for you and you need to be strong if your going to get our little girl through it safely.” 

“Any chance of a hint?”

“No spoilers sweetie.”

A weird look crossed the Doctor’s face.

Missy gave her a very smug grin. “Now you’re going to spend days wondering how I knew your last wife used to say that.”

“Missy.”

“Seriously get lost or I’ll tell you how I learned that River has a heart shaped birthmark on her inner thigh.”

The Doctor’s eyes were huge. 

Missy kissed her cheek. “Maybe I’ll save that story for a different time.”

The Doctor went to say goodbye to her daughters and granddaughters, woke Yaz, and they made their way back to her TARDIS. 

After they took off, guilt began to seep back in when she noticed how Yaz leaned against the railing, her face slightly drawn with pain. 

“Does it hurt? I know a really effective painkiller for broken bones, we just have to go to the seventh moon of Tesla.”

“It’s really not that bad. I think I’ll just lie down. If it’s bad in the morning, we can go then.”

The Doctor followed her to bed, what else could she do? 

“None of that now,” said Yaz when she noticed the way the Doctor’s eyes followed her. “It’s been far too long a day for me to have to talk you out of feeling guilty as well.”

The Doctor lay down beside her, pulling her into her arms. When she breathed in the scent of Yaz’s hair, everything began to feel better. How many times had they ended an adventure, hell even just a day, curled up and talking in the safety of their room. 

“I know. It’s just that you got hurt today, badly hurt, and when you were in danger I couldn’t get to you.” 

“I took care of myself.”

“I should have never left your side.”

“Except you had to, to go protect your daughter and I ran off to help that girl. It’s what we do Doctor, who we are. We protect others.”

“Should I rename Team TARDIS, the Protectors then?”

“Nah, it just doesn’t have the right ring to it.”

“Good. I did just finish those Team TARDIS patches. It would be a shame to have to start all over, especially after I had to cajole the TARDIS to fabricate them.

“The boys and I told you we weren’t going to wear those.” 

“Just wait, I’ll find a way to convince you.”

“Your welcome to try darling.” 

“Oh I will.”

Although Yaz drifted off easily, the Doctor was left awake, holding her injured mate, her mind heavy with worries. 


End file.
